Impact of a Sophomore Seminar on the Desire of STEM Majors to Pursue a Science Career

This study focuses on the im-pact of a sophomore seminar on STEM majors ’ desire to pursue a science career. This seminar was a component in a broader scholarship program and fo-cused on helping students gain a more in-depth understanding of the process of science, ex-posing students to a range of career options, and providing opportunities for outside of class student-faculty/scientist interac-tions. Interviews and reflection papers by the fifteen students who completed the seminar sug-gest that the most common ben-efits from the course involved development and refinement of career decisions, fomenting of self confidence and empower-ment, and awareness of avail-able resources to assist in the pursuit of a STEM career. The students very clearly indicated the importance and impact of a wide range of informal interac-tions between themselves and/ or faculty or other scientists, helping the students put a per-sonal face on those who have previously pursued a science career. Additionally, the expo-sure to these scientists and their stories, along with a more com-plete discussion about the pro-cess of science (including fund-ing, dissemination and ethics), spurred three of fifteen students to favorably reconsider the pos-sibility of research as a career option